Or so he'd like to believe. The worlds of Lance Schonberg.

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I Blame Wil Wheaton

The one thing Gamer Boy and I didn’t go to together at Montreal Comic Con was the Wil Wheaton Q&A session, though he did come with me later to get his autograph.

Mr. Wheaton was an interesting speaker and covered a lot of subjects both on his own and prompted by fan questions, everything from “Stand By Me” to his time on Star Trek TNG to “Table Top” on Geek and Sundry. I have audio and I’ll share when I get the podcast up and running.

Before I get started on what I’m blaming him for, let me be up front about something: I’m not a huge gushing fanboy most of the time (though I do have my moments now and again) and I didn’t trip over myself during the brief conversation at the autograph table, but I was also never a member of the “we hate Wesley” club (though I know people who were). I’m only a year and a half older than he is, more or less just the right age to understand what it was like to be an ostracized geek in high school (though fortunate to have other geeks around me) and I could extend that understanding to the character he had to play on the show. And his character got better, too, just by the way.

So, before the show, there was a screen looping an episode of Table Top, which I’ll admit to never having heard of before. He talked about it during the presentation, too. After the con, I thought I’d check it out. My kids like to play games and it’s tough to find things they’re all interested enough to play. I figured maybe I’d come up with something to try.

I’ve watched every episode of Table Top now, and ordered three games from the earlier episodes that looked like they might appeal: Munchkin, Get Bit, and Tsuro. Of the three, Munchkin is the biggest hit at home. We’ve probably played it 8 out of the last 10 days with a single game stretching over several evenings of an hour or more after I get home from work. All three of the kids are involved and we’ve convinced my non-geek wife to join into the new game, continuing tonight. My kids and I have played the other two and had fun, and will again, but it’s got to be Munchkin right now and we’re probably just about ready for an expansion pack.

My youngest saw me watching an episode of Table Top and asked me if we could maybe make a web show about us playing games. I thought about it for a few seconds, and said, “Why not?” We haven’t yet, but we have brought the cameras out a couple of times to let them roll while we played.

I wish we’d had them running during the epic battle that began with three of us poised to win the game and ended with no one higher than level five. A flurry of cards and excitement. It was awesome.

So, new games, a little more family time, and maybe even a home shot web show about gaming with my kids to come (because I have so much free time). I blame Wil Wheaton.